


At the Concha

by sometimes_petty



Category: 3 Percent (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:03:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29922129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sometimes_petty/pseuds/sometimes_petty
Summary: Glòria makes it in time to save Fernando
Relationships: Fernando Carvalho & Gloria, Fernando Carvalho & Michele Santana, Gloria & Michele Santana





	At the Concha

Glòria says goodbye to Ariel and walks away from the Process building without looking back. With each step, an iron rope threatens to pull her back and make her return to the Process to beg the guards to let her back in, when no one forced her to give up in the first place. And each time, it is unable to dent her stubborn determination. She has to save Fernando. And it's too late to change her mind. It's too late. It's too late. It's too late...  
The iron rope releases her and, knowing that she is approaching the place where Fernando is hidden, she begins to run.  
She finds soldiers standing guard at the entrance of a building. They put themselves on alert as soon as they see her, but they recognize her immediately and let her in. As she climbs to the top floor, Glòria sees them returning to the Process. Everyone back at their place.  
After few days in the pristine building Process, the dirty, worn walls of the one she is in now make her nauseous. She runs up the stairs, and the last steps crumble beneath her feet. She rushes into the doorless room on the top floor, and she finds Fernando on a mattress by the window.  
He is unconscious. His face is swollen, and his arm is bent in an unnatural position. He is still bleeding, but Glòria is still in time. She must be.  
She finds some water to wash the blood off and try to figure out where to start. The bulk of the injuries are bruises all over his body, but Glòria is afraid that he has also been hit on the head, and there isn't much she can do about it.  
Fernando must survive. Or it has all been in vain.  
She leaves him alone few times, when she has to go in search of specific remedies that she has not been able to find along the way to the hiding place. She looks after him all night and all the next day, hardly stopping to think. She doesn't want to.  
It is almost evening again when she hears someone else enter the building. She hopes they will stop on the lower floors, but whoever it is, they are coming to the top floor. Glòria stands between Fernando and the exit, an iron bar in her hands, and she finds in front of her a girl about her age, with dark hair just below her shoulders and eyes like fawn, right now terrified. She is bundled up in a pair of jackets, but underneath them you can see some more refined clothes, despite being soiled with mud. They are from the Maralto.  
"Who are you?" They both say at the same time.  
The other girl looks at her puzzled, then she understands. "You are Glòria, aren't you? Fernando told me about you. What are you doing here?"  
"And who would you be?”, asks Glòria again.  
"Michele. I was at the Process with Fernando." She looks at him for a moment, then again at Glòria. "I just found out what happened to him." She rummages in the bag over her shoulder and puts some bottles in Glòria's hand. "I took the most useful medicines. And painkillers."  
"How did you get them?", asks Glòria. Then she understands. "You ... you convinced him to do it! To talk about that ... that project!" She looks at Fernando. "It's your fault that this happened to him!"  
Michele says nothing to defend herself, but neither does she confirm. She approaches Fernando, checks his wounds, glances out the window.  
"We still have time.", she simply says.  
Right now, Glòria decides to put aside whatever Michele has done. She has the means to save Fernando, and that's enough for her.  
It takes days for him to show any sign of life. Ariel is probably already at the Maralto. Finally, one evening, Fernando slowly opens one eye, the least damaged one, and immediately notices Glòria.  
"What... ?" He reaches out and she immediately holds his hand, relieved to still see some strength in him. "How... Why are you here? What happened to the Process?"  
The question breaks her heart. "They told me what happened to you. I came looking for you immediately. If I hadn't found you, you would have never survived."  
A flash of pain crosses Fernando's face. He shakes his head slowly, and seems to be on the verge of tears.  
"No, no.", He whispers. "Not like this, not like this ..."  
"It's okay. You'll recover. And ..." And her? The magnitude of what happened - of what she did - is starting to come crashing down on her. She will never have access to the Maralto. She was one step away from passing the Process, and she gave up. Her mother was right. No, she abruptly thinks. She has gone through all the tests that she found in front of her. She chose to leave, while her parents both failed.  
This is comforting, for what little it's worth. And Fernando is safe. He will recover, of that she is sure. Especially thanks to the medicines brought by...  
"Where is Michele?" Asks Fernando.  
"She went to check the situation at ... at the Concha. She told me that she doesn't feel safe to stay too long in this area."  
"She is right.", Fernando mutters. "I should go too."  
He starts to get up, but Glòria stops him.  
"Are you crazy? You just woke up, you can't go around on your own. "  
"Then come with me."  
"What?" He can't be serious. "No. I'll go ... home. Or I'll go to the Church. There's always room for those in need."  
"Like at the Concha. And without the need to worship the Process."  
The resentment with which he says it breaks her heart. Fernando seems to notice this, and he is quick to reassure her.  
"Not only for this. We have the means and resources to help people in a way that the Church would never be able to. There are seeds for every type of plant, and a collector for water, and medicines ..."  
"I know. It is with those I-that we managed to save you. Michele brought a lot of them." She hopes Fernando doesn't notice the harshness of her tone.  
"Exactly.", he says instead. "If I hadn't made it, it wouldn't have been your fault. There has never a way to really help people, at least until now." With some effort, he lifts himself up on one elbow. "Come with me to the Concha. Going back home, after what you managed to do ... it would hurt you."  
"More than going to live in a place that rejects everything the Process teaches?" She didn't want to answer him so harshly, but she can't stand this conversation. "Commander Marcela herself told me what happened to you. What would they think of me if, after leaving the Process, I went to live at the Concha?"  
Fernando hesitates. Glòria realizes that a part of him is hiding something from her. He seems to want to tell her, but is afraid to.  
"But it was the Maralto that... gave us all the resources I told you about. I saw the containers arriving on the Continent myself. You saw the technologies they have at the Process, and they are the same with which we are building the Concha. "  
He makes a face, and Glòria imagines it is from the pain. She takes one of the last painkillers she has left - from the Maralto - and she administers it to him with the syringe that she has been disinfecting since Michele brought her all these drugs. All provided by the Maralto.  
"Why did they decide to give us all these things?"  
Fernando shrugs. "A surge of generosity.", He replies sarcastically. Then changes his mind. "We will be able to help many people. Especially those who have not passed- those who live on the Continent after the Process. Many children who do not have parents. And those who find themselves in situations like mine.", he adds, pointing at his wounds.  
Glòria glances out the window. In the evening, the streets are empty. They will soon become too dangerous to walk with an injured person. And she isn't sure she still has enough medicine for Fernando to last for the entire night.  
"Let's say I want to accompany you to the Concha,", she says, and it doesn't escape her how Fernando lights up at the idea, "do you feel able to sit in your chair? I don't know what would happen to your injuries, but ..."  
"I can resist. The painkiller is just starting to work, and whatever worsening I might have in the meantime, it would be a walk to cure it at the Concha."  
Glòria feels that she will regret it. But she also just realized that she had left the front door of her home open, certain that she, one way or another, would never set foot there again. By now it will have already been occupied.  
"Then try to stay awake. I need you to lead me there."

-

They sneak out of the building and quickly make their way through the streets. Glòria winces at the slightest noise, but it is always just voices coming from the houses, tired conversations or heated arguments. Fernando speaks low and shows her where to turn, always looking for the safest roads. They arrive on one of the main streets and here is the Concha, at the top of the slope. Its construction is still halfway through, too low for the width of its foundations, but lit more than the Process building.  
Glòria is struck by what she sees for a moment, and she hears too late the hurried footsteps coming in her direction. Instinctively, she places herself between Fernando and the person who is arriving, and is shocked to find herself in front of the doctor from the Maralto, who only a few days earlier checked her identification chip.  
She stops and seems to recognize her, then she notices Fernando, bent slightly on himself.  
"What happened to him?"  
"Nothing special.", he replies, but it seems like he is going to pass out again.  
Glòria has a moment of panic, wondering how on earth she is going to carry him up the slope, and she decides to throw caution to the air.  
"Please help me.", she says to the doctor. "He's badly injured, and I need to take him to the Concha. I won't tell anyone you came through here."  
But it probably won't help, because a soldier is running towards them. Glòria turns to take Fernando away, but she doesn't have time. The soldier - who, he notices only now, is completely unarmed - joins them, and the doctor pushes him away. Then he turns to Glòria. He widens his eyes.  
"Fernando ?! What ..."  
"I need help." Glòria says again. It is getting worse, and the efforts of the last days could be useless. "I have to go to the Concha, please, he's very sick ..." Maybe it's all a test. Perhaps they are hunting down those who reject the teachings of the Process.  
But the soldier who knows Fernando doesn't ask any questions, and helps her lift the chair and carry him up the slope. The doctor - the soldier continues to call her, Elisa - hesitates, then follows them and precedes them to the entrance. They have just arrived at the top, and she runs to the entrance to the Concha - surmounted by a sign, "Everyone is welcome" - and knocks, asking for help.  
"Rafael, what are you doing here?", they both jump; Fernando is awake again.  
"It's a long story." And probably Elisa has something to do with it, given the pained look he gives her.  
The door opens. Michele is smiling, then almost screams when she sees Fernando.  
"Take him to the infirmary.", she says to two buff people next to her.  
As soon as Fernando is taken away, she turns to Glòria and thanks her.  
"I was worried, but I didn't think he was already that bad. I was hoping I could come to help you in the morning."  
"Well, I got here by myself."  
"True." It is unnerving how she accepts every insult without the slightest objection or argument.  
Glòria is exhausted. She hasn't slept decently in days (since she was still a guest at the Process...), she is anxious about Fernando, and without strength after transporting him here. She only notices now that Michele is talking to the soldier - Rafael? - as if they know each other.  
"... and Elisa too, so we ran away. It's my fault, she found herself in this situation to protect my brother ..."  
"I'm sorry. You'll be safe here, I promise. The Maralto will never dare to attack us."  
"Oh, will they? Suffice to say that members of the Cause are hiding here-"  
"Who?" They both turn to her as if they have forgotten she was there. "Who is part of the Cause?"  
"None of your business."  
"I knew it. I knew it could not be anything else. You propose yourself as an 'alternative to Maralto', right? That was what you meant, in the end."  
"I don't want to have anything to do with the Cause.", Michele replies, with an unexpectedly icy tone. "Everyone is welcome. No need for loyalty oaths, no backstabbing, no price to pay to be accepted. If you don't like this place, you can leave, and come back if you ever need to." She stops, and returns to the calm gaze she had when they met. "If you will excuse me, I'm very tired, and I guess you too. Find a place to sleep, there's always one free."  
She starts to leave, but Glòria stops her. "Can I stay with Fernando?"  
Michele stops, looks at her with pity. "That shouldn't be a problem. The infirmary is empty. I'll show you."  
Although his appearance has not improved, Fernando already seems to be better by just being in a clean bed, already medicated for other superficial wounds, and under the supervision of the person on duty for the night.  
"We usually don’t have many patients,", Michele explains, "but we still make sure that there is always someone present all the time, in case there is an emergency."  
"It's a good idea.", Glòria says absentmindedly.  
Silence falls, broken only by Fernando's calm and regular breaths.  
"It was my fault.", Michele says at one point. "I convinced him to help me build this place. He was there - he was there for me. Because of me."  
"I know."  
"Do you plan to stay here?"  
And, before she can stop, Glòria is crying. Because Fernando is dying, because she will never see Ariel again, because she has lost her only chance at the Process, because ...  
"... m-my mother was right. She was right, I'll never have another life but this one."  
Michele really looks sorry.  
"No, she was wrong." She says. "Fernando ... told me what she put you through."  
"Oh really?"  
"Yes. And that's also why I wanted to build this place. We've all known someone who was wrong, who wanted nothing more than to make us miserable. I want to break this cycle. I want anyone who is welcomed here to be able to turn to that person and be able to tell them they were wrong, that we are not worthless. Will you stay here? Will you help me- help us make it possible? "  
Glòria moves her gaze from Fernando, towards the girl that she has kept insulting and accusing since they met, and who has never silenced her, who has continued to offer her help without hesitation, as if no words could hurt her.  
She looks again at Fernando, who she abandoned without hesitation in the hope of passing the Process, and who always kept thinking of her first.  
She wonders how many like her are at the Concha. How many are on the Continent, still too young to participate in the Process and not as strong as she has been in the meantime.  
She turns to Michele, and she almost finds the strength to smile.  
"Yes."


End file.
